Anniversary
by Kingsforcedvacation
Summary: While Megatron is in Bumblebees body he stumbled across Optimus Prime. What he finds out was something he never would of expected and something he really doesn't want to believe.


Megatron POV

I smiled as the scout fell into recharge. Ever since I followed the scout back into his mind, I had been waiting for the perfect opportunity to take control, and what better time to strike than when the owner of the body was unconscious and couldn't fight back?

I flexed my hands trying to get use to the new body before I cautiously stood up. It was odd being in a different frame, and after trying to take a step, I realized that the size difference also wreaked havoc on my balance. It was difficult to walk at first, but I've always been a fast learner. After a few laps around the small room I had enough control to walk and fight, though I don't have enough familiarity for fine motor control, not that I'll be in this body long enough to need it.

I quickly ran through a few fighting stances to test my control before I quietly snuck out of the scouts' room and made my way down the hall. I was almost out of what served as the barracks when I noticed a partially opened door. A quick glance through the crack showed Optimus Prime sitting on the floor with his back to the wall and half a cube of high grade in front of him.

_"What is he doing?" _I asked myself, inching closer to get a better look at the slumped figure.

As I watched Optimus brought the cube of high grade up to his lips with shaky hands and sipped the concentrated brew before placing the cube back down and resting his helm in his hands. I watched him for a second longer before glancing down the hallway towards my destination. I warred with myself. Should I really risk exposing myself just to figure out what was wrong with my nemesis? Eventually curiosity won out and I quietly slid the door open and stepped inside.

Optimus didn't even twitch as I slid the door closed behind me. That was odd, Optimus was usually much more aware of his surroundings.

"Optimus?" I called softly.

Optimus tensed as he jerked his head up just to relax when he saw who it was.

Optimus gave me a forced smile, "Is everything alright Bumblebee?"

"I saw you when I walked by and wanted to ask if you were okay," I explained, trying to imitate the scout.

"I am fine," Optimus said as warmly as he could, and if I hadn't known him for so long, I would have bought the act.

"Are you celebrating something?" I asked gesturing to the cube.

Optimus looked at the cube and I saw a flash of sorrow, pain, and rage before he shook his head, "No, not a celebration. More like an anniversary."

An anniversary? Of what? The start of the war? The death of a friend or lover? I searched my memory, but I couldn't think of anything that made this particular date special. So, instead of searching for answers I did not have, I slowly slid down the wall next to Optimus.

I gave him my best innocent/concern/inquiring look (taking full advantage of the scouts' youth) and asked, "What's the anniversary of?"

Optimus stared at me for what seemed like ages before turning his head to stare blankly at the wall in front of him.

"Are you sure you want to know?" Optimus finally asked.

I nodded in confirmation when he glanced my way.

He took another sip before he began, "Did you know Megatron and I visited the council once before I became Prime?"

I frowned mentally. What was he talking about? We had never been to the council except for when Optimus became Prime.

"We were there for the same exact reason as the second time, to make Megatron the new Prime, except the first time we succeeded."

I stared blankly at the mech in front of me, not believing what I was hearing. Prime must overcharged and the stress of the virus must be making him hallucinate.

"Or rather we would have," Optimus continued, snapping me out of my thoughts, "if the council hadn't intercepted the Matrix before it could reach him."

He turned to look me in the optics, "The council was corrupt. You see, they liked the cast system, the power it gave them, the superiority, the wealth. It was because of that that they could never allow a miner to become Prime. The whole cast system would be called into question. If a miner, the lowest cast, could become Prime then why couldn't others of the lower casts rise in rank? It wouldn't be long after that that people would start questioning them, their power, their wealth, their precious superiority. They couldn't let that happen."

"After they locked the Matrix away, they ordered the guards to capture us. We tried our best to resist them, but I was no fighter and, no matter how good of a gladiator he was, Megatron couldn't win against the sheer number of guards. The tranquilizer darts didn't hep any either," Optimus said with a snort as he raised the cube to his lips and took a gulp of the blue liquid. "When we woke up, we were in a lab strapped down to surgical tables. They explained what they were going to do as they prepared. Since they couldn't out right kill us, we were too important to just disappear with the council as our last known location, they were going to hack our processors and remove the memories of our visit. Overall, that wouldn't have been so bad if that was all they did, but the council was smart. They knew that we would try again and that the Matrix would pick Megatron every time, so they had to make sure that the Matrix would never want Megatron ever again."

The implications sent a chill down my back struts. I shook my head. There is no way this can be true, I would know, I would have at least some inkling that something had changed. Optimus is just overcharged and he's concocting this fantasy to relive him of guilt, nothing more.

_"Is this really the ramblings of an overcharged mech?" _A small voice whispered despite my efforts to squash it. "_It makes a sick amount of since, doesn't it? Something changed a few days before you went to the council, you could feel it."_

I shook my head in denial and focused back on Optimus' story.

Optimus continued, the story spilling out in a torrent, unable to stop, "They downloaded a program into his processor. It altered his personality matrix, increasing his greed, his ruthlessness, his lust for power, slowly making him volatile, pushing him closer and closer to insanity with each passing day. It was everything the Matrix could never have in a host."

Optimus drained the rest of the high grade and seemed to fortify himself for what happened next.

"You're probably curious as to why I remember all of this when I said they were going to erase the memories," Optimus said, looking at me with dark optics.

I nodded, not liking the bitter smile that slid onto Optimus' face.

"Part of me wishes they had been able too," Optimus admitted quietly. "It was my occupation that saved my memories. Archivists handle large amounts of data almost constantly, so we needed a strong processor that can handle all of that information. Part of it is natural talent, the rest are upgrades that fortified and enhanced our processers. Those upgrades included strong firewalls and backup storage of important information. When the hackers tried to get access to my memory banks the found that they couldn't get through. They were determined, however, so they resorted to a more… messy tactic. They decided to take advantage of the fact that firewalls became weaker when a mech was in excruciating pain."

The energon in my veins went cold, "_They tortured him?" _

The part of me that was Megatronus was screaming in outrage, "_How could this have happened?" _

I was past holding on to the belief that this was just a hallucination, the emotions were too real, the story to likely. I just can't process it yet. It was too big, too life altering to grasp, and the thought of someone torturing Orion stirred up feelings that I haven't had in millennia.

"I will not go into detail, but the councils' hackers were creative. Despite that it still took hours for them to break through the firewall. They deleted the memories they found in my memory banks, but never noticed the backup drive, and unfortunately the entire experience was deemed important enough to be stored there. After they the hackers got what they wanted they wanted, they covered up their tracks and repaired my frame to the best of their ability, then smuggled us to our homes."

"But if you remembered what happened, why didn't you tell Megatron what happened?" I couldn't help but interrupt.

Optimus sighed, "While the hackers repaired me to the best of their ability, there was still lingering damage that they couldn't fix or missed. Some of that lingering damage was to the circuits in my processer that allowed access to the backup drive. So, I didn't remember when we went to the council the second time, the most I received was a sense of déjà vu and a flash of pain."

Thinking back to the visit Orion did flinch when he entered the council chambers. At the time I had just thought he was intimidated, but now…

"And so, the second meeting continued without any knowledge of the first. As they had hoped, the Matrix did not pick Megatron, though it picking me came as a surprise. Unlike Megatron I was seen as high enough in the cast system to become Prime, so they allowed it to merge with me," he paused for a second, a mixture of sadness/pain/bitterness/regret forced its way into his optics. "Without the program, me becoming Prime would have been almost as good for the cause as Megatron becoming Prime. With the program, however, power lust and jealousy took over and he severed all ties. By the time my processor healed enough for me to remember what happened, it was too late for me to reach him."

A single tear ran down Optimus' face, the only outward sign of what he was feeling.

"That day has become cursed in a way. Nothing ever goes right. You've already seen that for yourself. It's because of that that whenever the anniversary comes around, I try my best to be off duty so I can lock myself in my room with a cube of high grade and try to drown out the pain from the memories. I shall always be grateful that the Cybertronian year is so much longer than an Earth year," he muttered the last part, genuine relief and gratefulness coating each word.

Something about the way he said 'the pain from the memories' was bothering me.

"What did you mean by the pain from the memories?" I asked.

He stared at me for a minute, the high grade having slowed down his processer, before he answered without a hint of emotion, "When a memory is deemed important enough to be put into the backup drive, it is etched into my CPU so that I will never forget a single detail, whether it be sound, smell, taste, or pain."

My tanks dropped. That meant that every flashback, every nightmare of that time he relived the entire experience over and over again. Time dulled most memories, even for processors like ours, but a memory like that will never fade.

"Don't worry about it too much Bumblebee," Optimus said as he stood up and stated guiding me to the door. "Most of the nightmares I have about that night happen on the anniversary, and the best thing about only having a cube of high grade once every Cybertronian year is that I never built up an immunity to it. So, it only takes one cube for me to become so overcharged I won't remember anything that happens tonight."

With that he wished me a happy recharge and pushed me out the door.

…

_"It feels wonderful to be back in my own frame," _I thought as I stretched.

It had been as easy as I thought it would be to resurrect myself using the scout, and it had been even easier to deal with Starscream. I should be happy and planning my next move, but my processer keeps circling back around to what I learned during my time in the scouts' body. I tried my best to think my way into believing it was just a story, nothing more, but I can't help the voice in my head that keeps asking; What if? What if it was true? What if the council did something to me? What if I've been fighting the mech I considered a brother, because of a string of code?

Eventually I couldn't take the doubts anymore. I walked over to Soundwaves quarters and knocked. Soundwave answered moments later, not the least bit fazed at seeing me at his door.

"Soundwave, I need you to find something for me."


End file.
